Secret documents on Dimensions closure fiasco to be made public

EMAILS and letters between former elected mayor Mark Meredith and WaterWorld owner Mo Chaudry over the Dimensions pool closure fiasco are being made public today.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is disclosing the paper trail after a decision to withhold its publication was overturned by a tribunal.

The refusal to release the documents related to a confidentiality agreement signed as part of Mr Chaudry's £21,850 payoff from the council to drop his threat to sue over the botched pool closure plans in 2008.

Mr Chaudry claimed the council reneged a secret deal to shut the splash pool and pay him to offer a discount at WaterWorld.

Police arrested Mr Meredith, now a cabinet member on the city council, Mr Chaudry and former councillor Roger Ibbs as part of police inquiries into alleged corruption over the affair. Nobody was charged and the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Mr Meredith today welcomed the disclosure, claiming it will absolve him of wrongdoing.

He said: "I am pleased that the full story can now be told and I welcome this opportunity to do so.

"Unfortunately, I was not able to speak on this issue previously both because a legal process was still being progressed and there were clear legal reasons preventing me from speaking.

"I hope that information that is now in the public domain helps to clarify the issues surrounding the original decision."

9 comments

Mark has issued the following statement through his 'brief'.
'I'm....innocent....I......tell........you!'
You sure about that Mark? Definitely sure? No fingers crossed?
'I am the man who created thousands and thousands of jobs all over Stoke-on-Trent.'
You created none Mark. You are having one of your many 'total recall moments.'
'I bought £350m to Stoke-on-Trent to build brand new schools.'
No you didn't, the money was already here.
'I brought Democracy to Stoke-on-Trent'
No Mark, you made Stoke-on-Trent part of the Odessa trail.'
'The people of Stoke-on-Trent love me'
It is Valentine's day but let's not confuse a warrant for an admirer.
So why all the secrecy Mark?
Who is it that wants secrecy?
Who is Mr. H, hiding?
Does he want to be hidden?
Who, and how much has been paid to hide him?
Is Mr. H, doing a Jack Nicholson (the Shining) and hiding someone who isn't real?
Is it you Mark? (Wendy! I'm home!)
Mark is a naughty boy.
Mark is a naughty boy......

A good reporter will now visit Mo and ask if he ever wanted secrecy for 'business reasons'?
He'll answer: No.
So then the good reporter will then visit Mr. H in the legal department who will come out with some cock and bull story about protecting the Stoke public and good reason why good Council tax needed to be spent on the secrecy. (protecting us from who?)(personally, I want protecting from you!)
The reporter (who doesn't believe anything or anyone anymore) will go back to the wardrobe and ask what's really going on?
Mark, organising a coup, will insist it is his right to hide in a wardrobe.

Mark, speaking from inside his wardrobe which he refuses to open says:
'I have nothing to hide and any rumours that I am planning to oust Pervez are completely groundless.'
'We needed to shut Dimensions in 2008 because it lost £60,000'.
'Just because that figure was a made-up figure with no foundation, doesn't mean we shouldn't shut it'.
'This Labour Council is confident, it will be all Eric Pickles fault when the Tories run this Country in two years time'.
When asked where all of the other £36m that is 'missing' from Stoke-on--Trent's accounts (2008)?
Mark is adamant that ''He knows nothing of Icelandic banks and has never seen 'The year the Town Hall shrank' (£21m turns into £36m, according to JVL).
Mark stayed within the wardrobe throughout the interview.